Indiana Blood Center and the Indianapolis Colts are in the eleventh season of a partnership that credits the team for generating nearly 50,000 donations for hospitals throughout Indiana. What started with a one-day Bleed Blue Blood Drive has grown into a calendar of year-round activities to bolster the blood supply. The newest component is the Corporate Blood Drive Challenge.
"From all reaches of the state, from donors young and old, for patients of all ages at Indiana hospitals – our work with Indiana Blood Center connects us all by harnessing our fans' excitement into a good deed," said Colts' VP of Sales and Marketing Tom Zupancic. "The blood drive challenge is a wonderful example of what Colts fans in this community are all about."
Over two months this fall, 5,530 Colts fans from 96 host organizations donated blood in the second year of the event –an increase of nearly 600 donors from last years challenge. Participating organizations competed against their industry peers in one of 5 categories to see which could recruit the most blood donors. Winning groups were determined by the number of donations collected relative to the number of employees, students or members within the organization.
The 18 winning host organizations have earned visits with Colts cheerleaders, Blue or the Vince Lombardi Trophy. They are:
- Monarch Beverage, Indianapolis
- Multi-Packaging, Terre Haute
- Interactive Intelligence Corp, Indianapolis
- CNO Financial, Group, Carmel
- Capital Group, Carmel
- Stanley Security Solutions, Indianapolis
- DowAgro Sciences, Indianapolis
- Roche, Indianapolis
- Hamilton Heights High School, Arcadia
- Wood Memorial High School, Oakland City
- Landmark Center Building, Indianapolis
- Aircom, Indianapolis
- City Securities, Indianapolis
- Cornerstone Baptist Academy, Indianapolis
- Sugar Creek Elementary, Crawfordsville
- Martinsville East Middle School, Martinsville
- Noble Crossing Elementary, Noblesville
- Southside Elementary, Indianapolis
